Swollen Eyeball Network
by ZoologyKaM
Summary: Rachael is pulled into the mysterious organization known as the Swollen Eyeballs when she is attacked by a flaming cockroach. The paranormal junk becomes her reality as she discovers just how deep into the unknown she can go. Her new name is Agent Kelpie. Keep your mind open, and your eyes swollen for this thriller of a story.


_**A/N: **__Welcome to another story by me! _

_This story features the mysterious organization, The Swollen Eyeball Network, and how an original character, Rachael Mellin, gets dragged into the world of Paranormal studies. The question has always been asked, how much power does this secretive group really have? _

_Quick note about my stories. I continue stories on a review basis only. If you favorite or follow the story that's fine but I don't have time in my schedule to continue stories that no one cares about. Leave a review if you wish for the story to continue and I'll make my judgment in a week._

_Expect the unknown, keep your mind open, and your eyes swollen._

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Expect the Unknown**

_"Do we have a team cleared for that household tonight?" "Yes, sir. Agent Dark Bootie said he'd be heading it up himself." "Very good." "Sir… If I may ask, I've heard rumors that the youngest…" "Agent Tunaghost, I believe the S.E.N is run on hard facts. Not needless rumors or suspicions." "Yes, sir. Sorry sir." "Good. And how is the investigation into those fire bugs going?" "I'm afraid we're no closer to locating the nest than we were before. At this rate there'll be another attack." "Hmmm… Well keep trying. I'll alert the local fire departments just in case. Off with you now. I have a feeling this is going to be a busy night."_

XXX

The clock ticked slower than ever during those last twenty minutes of class. Rachael's eye twitched as she stared up at the overly-perky-to-an-obnoxious-point, teacher Mrs. Pleasant, who was going on and on about how Art is good for the soul, though she was adding the word 'Sparkle' into her speech so often that Rachael was starting to feel sick.

Her long brown hair hung down in front of her face, hiding the fact that she was starting to drool. Her green eyes were dazed and empty. Just as her head began to droop, preparing to fall asleep, a wadded up piece of paper landed on her desk.

_You're starting to fall asleep!_

Rachael scrawled something on the wrinkled page then tossed it over her shoulder. The response came quickly along with a stifled snicker from behind her.

_Yes! Yes I am a Genius! About time you noticed! After all no one gets grades like mine in this class!_

Rachael stifled a snort. Matt was the worst student in the class. It was lucky for him that he was decently good looking or the teachers might just think he was a thug. He didn't fit any normal stereotypes though. His short black hair often held a blue-ish sheen in sunlight, and contrasted strangely with his icy blue eyes and pale skin. Together, those traits gave him a mysterious look.

The two of them spent the remainder of class tossing that wrinkled up paper back and forth. By the end of class their faces were red from contained laughter.

"Man! I thought school would never end today!" Rachael complained as she packed up her books from her locker.

"High School!" Matt laughed. "Everything they told us it would be and 5 large textbooks more!"

Rachael laughed. "So, wanna watch a movie tonight?"

Matt jumped excitedly and started to agree, "Yeh…. Uhh… no. Can't tonight." His face fell as he looked at a calendar on his phone. "My family's that time of the month." It was what he always called it, his family's personal period. Rachael was curious as always about what his family did on that night, but she had learned long ago that it was a touchy subject, and let it go without a word.

"Maybe tomorrow then."

"Yeah!"

They were chatting all the way out of the school and up to Matt's house, which was on the way to Rachael's. They bid each other goodnight and agreed to meet up tomorrow for a weekend binge of horror movies and pineapple pizza.

XXX

"Mom! I'm home!"

"Welcome home dear." Rachael's mom poked her head from around the kitchen door. "Your father called today, he said he'll be home later tonight." Rachael's Dad worked as a truck driver and was seldom home, add in a few other disagreements, and he and his daughter rarely got along.

"Ugh… Alright."

"Now be nice. I don't need to come back from cards tonight to find you two fighting over one of his stories again." Her mom bustled around the kitchen making an appetizer for her cards club meeting, leaving no room for the argument. Resigned to her fate, Rachael grabbed a snack and headed up to her room.

Turning on her computer, she was pleasantly surprised to see Matt online and chatting up a storm with another of their friends from school, from a year above them, Sera.

**Sera:** I really don't get why your family is so strict about this thing. Not to mention why you can't tell us what you're even doing. If you ask me it's really sketch.  
**Matt:** Would you drop it already! It's not like I like it!  
**Rach: **Sup guys!  
**Matt: **RACH! PLEASE GET HER OFF MY BACK!  
**Sera:** That's right, go cry to your girlfriend. ;P  
**Matt: **She's not my girlfriend!  
**Rach: **He's not my girlfriend!  
**Matt: **…  
**Matt: **girlfriend?  
**Rach:** ^_^  
**Sera: **AHAHAHAHA!

Being that she was now too busy teasing her friends, Sera let the subject die. They were still chatting when Rachael's mom came up to say she was leaving. It was around sunset when Matt logged out suddenly, like he did every month. Sera and Rachael discussed ideas of what his family might be doing but soon got bored of that since over the years they had already thought of every possibility they could.

Sounds of someone moving in the kitchen made Rachael groan.

**Rach: **My dad's home…  
**Sera:** He talking about another UFO story?  
**Rach: **Gawd I hope not…  
**Rach: **It's Horid! He never shuts up! Just goes on and on about what aliens or bigfeets or who knows what else, that he saw on his latest drive. I'm sick of it!  
**Sera: **Well just go down and get it over with. We can laugh about it when you get back. :)

Reluctantly, Rachael logged off (mostly because Sera logged off for dinner) and went down stairs. The noises were scraping through the cabinet for food. "Honestly… Dinner's in the Oven!" She yelled as she walked toward the kitchen. Something shattered on the floor making her stop in her tracks. "Dad?"

Everything was quiet. Moving slowly, Rachael grabbed an umbrella from the bucket by the door. She gripped it tightly with her right hand while her left went for her cell phone and dialed in 911, but she waited to press send until she could be certain that it was indeed not her father that was breaking stuff.

Slowly, inch by inch, the teenager crept forward. The sounds had started again. Rustling of bags, another smashed plate, and footsteps that sounded like they couldn't exist. They were soft but had a strange pattern in touching the hard kitchen floor, as if the owner of them was skipping in an odd triple step.

Reaching the open doorway, Rachael pressed herself close to the wall then peeked around the corner hoping she could sneak up on the robber or whoever it was, but once she saw, she let out a loud gasp and dropped the umbrella. It fell to the floor with a clatter that drew the attention of the giant bug that was ripping its way through the cereal boxes.

Rachael stared, horrified. The massive bug turned toward her standing on its two back legs. It might have looked like a cockroach except that, standing at full height, its antennae just brushed the 10ft high ceiling. Its exoskeleton looked as solid as armor and gleamed an angry red; in the light reflecting off it, Rachael could swear she saw flames dancing on its skin.

_"Hello? 911. What is the nature of your emergency?"_

In her fright, Rachael had tightened her grip on her phone and had pressed the send button. That voice was the only thing that pulled her out of her shock.

"THERE'S A GIANT BUG IN MY HOUSE!"

"_Ma'am this is an Emergancy hotline. If you have a bug problem you need to call an exterminator…"_

_"_IT'S TEN FEET TALL!" Even as she yelled, the bug was moving ever closer to her. Rachael continued to face the monster but started backing down the hall. Her heart was drumming loudly in her ears. _'I've got to get away! Got to get away!' _her mind was screaming at her to run but her legs could barely take each small step backwards as the bug stepped forward. Its large pincers snicked menacingly.

In a flash, the bug leapt forward. Its head slammed into the front door as Rachael dodged to the side and ran for the stairs. She was on the top step by the time the bug shook its head and looked for where its meal had gone.

Rachael raced down the hall not daring to look back, and slammed the door of her room. The adrenalin pumping through her veins made it simple to slide her heavy bookshelf in front of the door. A loud THUD came from the bug slamming against the other side of the door. Rachael screamed and pushed against the shelf with her back. Fumbling with her hands, she eventually managed to pick up her phone. The 911 operator had disconnected thinking this was some sort of prank. Rachael swore then let out another squeaky yelp when the bug slammed against the door again.

With shaking hands, she dialed in the first number that came to her mind.

_'Hello! You've reached the phone of the awesome Matthew Lycan! Since this is clearly a recording, leave a message after the tone!' _Rachael swore again. The bug slammed against the door again, with ever increasing force.

"MATT! PLEASE HELP! IT'S! I DON'T KNOW SOME GIANT BUG! AHH!" She let out another scream. "MATT HELP ME! CALL THE COPS OR SOMETHING! PLEASE PICK UP! MAA…" The door was blasted off its hinges and both it and the bookcase slid forward falling on top of Rachael. The weight of the books and the shelf pinned her to the ground. Something warm oozed along the back of her head and onto her face. Its warm sticky feeling left no doubt in Rachael's mind that she had a huge gash on her head.

The girl held perfectly still as a quiet clung to the room. She winced as the bug's weight pressed down on the bookcase. _'I'll be crushed before it can eat me…' _The morbid thought was in her head before she could stop it. '_This is really it… It's going to eat me! I'm going to die here!' _She wanted to scream out but the pressure from the shelf was squeezing the air out of her lungs.

_AOUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!_

An eerie howl caused the bug to pause. From under the shelf, Rachael couldn't see anything else, but when a loud crash, sounding like the window shattered, reverberated through the room, she could feel the next terrifying roar down to her bones.

For a second, the pressure on her back increased, but then it lightened considerably. Her mind was oxygen deprived, and even with that next large gulp of air, her vision was still threatening to black out. Her whole body ached but in desperation Rachael dragged herself out from under the shelf.

The sight that reached her eyes, sent her heart into her throat. Pinning the bug to the wall was a massive blue wolf. Its fangs barred, its raggedy fur stood straight up, as did its tail, and its ears were flat on its skull. Its two front paws pressed on the chest plate of the giant cockroach; each of its claws was like a curved dagger. The worst part of it all was that those _things_ were right between Rachael and the door.

A bright light blinded both Rachael and the wolf. When Rachael looked up again the entire wall was on fire and the wolf had leapt back from the bug which also now had flames dancing across its shell. Rachael screamed, "NO!"

The wolf took one look back at the terrified human. It took one last slash at the bug's armor, before turning and running to the girl. It grabbed her belt in its teeth and threw her over its shoulder. Rachael screamed as the wolf leapt out the gaping hole that was once the window, and they dropped twenty feet to the ground. Her hands grabbed fistfuls of hair and she held on for dear life.

As if the fall had meant nothing, the wolf absorbed the impact and sprung forward, bounding up the street. Rachael squinted through the wind that blasted her face. Houses rushed by at an unbelievable speed. Far faster than any wolf could ever have run. But then the running came to a screeching halt and Rachael tumbled over the wolf's shoulders and onto the ground.

Spotlights blinded her in the darkness. From the ground Rachael could just barely make out the silhouettes of the group that stood around them.

"Tundra Wolf! You are hereby ordered to step away from the human. Resist and we **_will_** open fire."

"What!?" Rachael's voice squeaked. The wolf was standing over her defensively; its growled response, deep and throaty.

From behind the lights, a tall man stepped forward. Rachael could only see a silhouette, but the man stood tall, his arms folded behind his back, with a dignified look. "You don't want this girl hurt right?" His voice was calm, speaking not to a wild animal, but as if he expected this wolf to talk back to him. "We're here to help, Lycan."

Rachael's eyes widened. "Lycan? But that's… Matthew!?"

The wolf was still growling, though softer now, and the man looked down at her, raising an eyebrow. He said nothing to her, looking back to the wolf. "Release her to us and give yourself up and we'll make sure she is safe."

For a second, Rachael was sure the wolf was going to attack the man, but then the growling stopped and the muscled legs that stood over her stepped back. The man walked forward and reached out a hand to help her up. Too stunned to move, Rachael just kneeled there staring at the wolf over her shoulder. The man reached down and grabbed her upper arm, pulling her roughly to her feet. The wolf growled at the discordant treatment. The hand released her to stand on her own while another figure moved forward to pull her back to safety.

Rachael held her ground.

"Matt? Is that you?"

The wolf's ears drooped and it stepped back whimpering.

"Get her out of here." The man pushed Rachael back to the other person, who grabbed her and forced her out of the way.

The wolf growled and leapt forward. A dart whistled by Rachael's left ear and dropped her hairy friend to the ground.

"NO!" Rachael struggled against the arms holding her back but couldn't get free. Others rushed forward, gathering around the sleeping wolf. "Get OFF of Me! Maatt!" A sharp pain shot out in her neck. Her vision blurred. The man from before entered her fading vision.

"Get her out of here."

When turned his back, even through fading vision, Rachael saw a large eye staring at her.


End file.
